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@Pete – Socioeconomic goals are in fact the program office responsibility, although they do not seem to be held accountable. Instead, the procurement organization is held responsible.

Program offices are responsible for market research, and ensuring opportunities exist for small business participation through effective requirements development (e.g. preventing bundling), and working with the procurement organization to understand and meet these small business goals. Further, small business contracting should be job one for everyone in the organization, so again it starts with the program office to qualify the need for socioeconomic set-asides, and working hand-in-hand with the procurement office on the acquisition strategy for effective socioeconomic contract execution.

Nonetheless, accountability has been flipped on its head, small business advocates and OSBDUs have little to no teeth, and the SBA is overwhelmed. The result is little accountability and enforcement.

I hope to get some discussion around offices that are enforcing these goals, and how they are achieving them. best practices and lessons learned can go a long way if they get communicated, but they first must be shared!